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Angelou Ezeilo | Nick Chiles | 2019

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Engage, Connect, Protect

Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders

While concern about the state of our land, air, and water continues to grow, there is widespread belief that environmental issues are primarily of interest to wealthy white communities. Engage, Connect, Protect explodes this myth, revealing the deep and abiding interest that African American, Latino, and Native American communities - many of whom live in degraded and polluted parts of the country - have in our collective environment.

Part eye-opening critique of the cultural divide in environmentalism, part biography of a leading social entrepreneur, and part practical toolkit for engaging diverse youth, Engage, Connect, Protect covers:

Why communities of color are largely unrecognized in the environmental movement

Bridging the cultural divide and activating a new generation of environmental stewards

A curriculum for engaging diverse youth and young adults through culturally appropriate methods and activities

A resource guide for connecting mainstream America to organizations working with diverse youth within environmental projects, training, and employment.

Engage, Connect, Protect is a wake-up call for businesses, activists, educators, and policymakers to recognize the work of grassroots activists in diverse communities and create opportunities for engaging with diverse youth as the next generation of environmental stewards.

Angelou Ezeilo is founder and CEO of the Greening Youth Foundation. A 2016 Ashoka Fellow. she is a member of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights' Women in Solidarity Society. She lives in Atlanta, GA and Victoria Island, Nigeria.

Nick Chiles is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author. He lives in Atlanta, GA.

Click here to search for books for this author.

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Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders by Angelou Ezeilo and Nick Chiles While concern about the state of our land, air, and water continues to grow, there is widespread belief that environmental issues are primarily of interest to wealthy white communities. Engage, Connect, Protect explodes this myth, revea

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Canarsie Studios

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Climate Change & Environmental Racism by Canarsie Studios

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Twelve Black Climate Activists Changing out World

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Twelve Black Climate Activists Changing out World

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Greg Harman | Nexus Media | 2020

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Here are the voices of those struggling for racial justice in the face of rising temperatures.

By Nexus Media
The politics of climate change are shifting. This year, as the most diverse Congress in history was sworn in, its newest members called for an ambitious plan to overhaul the U.S. economy to draw down carbon pollution while tackling social injustice. While the big, mostly white environmental groups hemmed and hawed about whether to support the proposal, a young, racially diverse coalition of advocates took to the Capitol steps to make the case. Organizers and activists long relegated to the sidelines are gaining momentum-and political power-as they push for bold solutions to the greatest challenge of our time. A new generation of Black luminaries stands at the vanguard of this movement.
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York, Frances Perez-Rodriguez has dedicated her career to making sure everyone has access to nutritious, sustainably grown food. Perez-Rodriguez is a member of the La Finca Del Sur Community Farm, an urban farming cooperative led by Black and Latina women and a market manager at Rise & Root Farm, farming cooperative in Chester, New York. Source: Nexus Media.
"I was introduced to community organizing after seeing a documentary on the Central Park Five and learning about the ways the NYPD - and the U.S. criminal 'justice' system at-large - mistreats people of color.... The killings of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, soon after, solidified in me the need to better grasp white supremacy, racism and international struggles for self-determination and against oppression."
- Frances Perez-Rodriguez, farmer and activist

Mychal Johnson is a community organizer in the South Bronx in New York City. As the co-founder of South Bronx Unite, he is working with community members to care for a neighborhood coping with decades of pollution and neglect. Source: Nexus Media

"My grandparents migrated to the North from the South in 1945. They were very active in their community, always engaged in what was going on. They showed me as a child that that was part of our social responsibility. My mother was really engaged in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. I think the incremental change laid out in decades past is what we need to carry forward, and I think it's my responsibility as a conscious individual to somehow be a part of creating change."

- Mychal Johnson, Bronx-based organizer

Adrienne Hollis is a scientist and environmental lawyer who serves as the lead climate justice analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, and teaches law at American University and public health at George Washington University. Source: Nexus Media

"I try to make sure that people who have traditionally not been allowed - or included in places where decisions are made - to be in those spaces so they can speak for themselves and influence environmental, public health and policy issues."

- Adrienne Hollis, biomedical scientist and environmental lawyer

In September 2018, Lindsay Harper made history as the first Black woman to become executive director of Georgia WAND, a women-led advocacy group working to end nuclear proliferation and stem pollution. Harper believes that economic empowerment is the best tool for promoting peace. Source: Nexus Media

"It's a special time where we're building healthy movement. We don't have to sacrifice ourselves in the process. Nobody has to be sacrificed for the world to be better. This mindset that there's not enough for everyone to have something - fuck that. It's white supremacy."

- Lindsay Harper, Atlanta-based organizer

Quentin Bell, a trans man, is the executive director of The Knights & Orchids Society Inc., a Selma, Alabama-based nonprofit led by Black, Queer, and gender non-conforming activists who are working to protect LGBTQ rights in the South. Source: Nexus Media

"Many of us forget that this work is long term. It isn't an overnight fix, and we have to prepare the next line of fighters for the work. I had to become my own advocate because there wasn't anyone who looked like me that I could relate to through my transition. Once I created what I needed, I reached back to help others like me. In that reach back, I realized that I had to move out of the way."

- Quentin Bell, Selma-based organizer

A native of Dominica, Ama Francis is a climate law fellow at the Sabin Law Center at Columbia University, working to help people displaced by climate disasters and make small island nations more resilient in the facing of rising seas and dangerous storms. Source: Nexus Media

"I wanted to study something that would help protect Dominica, and given that climate change is one of our biggest threats, I chose environmental law so we could have access to legal tools in the fight against climate change. Now that I live in the U.S., I realize that climate change is an issue about inequality - not only between countries, but also between people from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds."

- Ama Francis, environmental lawyer

A lifelong New Yorker, Karen Washington is a farmer, activist, physical therapist and board member of the New York Botanical Garden. Through her work with Farm School, she is teaching young New Yorkers about gardening and community organizing. And, as a co-founder of Black Urban Growers, she is working with Black farmers on growing fresh, nutritious food for underserved communities. Source: Nexus Media

"Know your true history. We are an agrarian people. We were brought here enslaved not as unskilled labor, but as skilled and knowledgeable farmers... Long ago we were told to leave the land for a better life. Instead, we forgot it's the land that gives us our power. Now we know, as Mother Nature calls us back to where we came from, to once again become stewards of the land."

- Karen Washington, farmer and activist

A sociologist and organizer, Ife Kilimanjaro serves as the senior network engagement director at the U.S. Climate Action Network. She was spurred to work on environmental issues after working as an elementary school principal in Detroit, where she saw children get sick and miss school because of air pollution and lack of access to clean water. Source: Nexus Media

"Often missing in the literature and research are important pieces of history made and told by Indigenous people, people of color, poor folks, rural folks and others on the front lines of environmental injustices and climate change. Relatedly, expertise, wisdoms and presence of these frontline communities are missing at tables and in rooms where decisions are made that impact them."

- Ife Kilimanjaro, sociologist and organizer

Environmental organizer Rachel Stevens got her start working with college students advocating for clean energy in South Florida, and went on to work with indigenous communities fighting for their land in Peru. Most recently, she worked with the Sierra Club, organizing communities of color threatened by urban oil drilling in Los Angeles. As a part of a movement that has long been helmed by white men, she is pushing to see more Black and Queer organizers in positions of leadership. Source: Nexus Media

"Black folks, low-income folks, and other people of color and indigenous peoples contribute the least to environmental destruction, yet we experience the worst impacts of climate change and pollution."

- Rachel Stevens, Los Angeles-based organizer

Beverly Scott is the vice chair of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council and Jobs to Move America, and the founder of Introducing Youth to American Infrastructure+, which helps women and people of color become infrastructure innovators and entrepreneurs. She's working to make sure public transportation projects serve everyone. Source: Nexus Media

"For 40 years, I have worked in the public transportation sector. And while I respect and enjoy all of the big pieces that move, massive equipment and structures, at the end of the day what I have really been privileged to do is be in the business of community building, which I would not trade for anything."

- Beverly Scott, policy analyst and advocate

Rev. Michael Malcom is a pastor and environmental advocate, serving as director of of South Carolina Interfaith Power and Light and Alabama Interfaith Power and Light, organizations led by faith leaders working to protect creation. Source: Nexus Media

"Environmental justice means loving my neighbor. It means speaking truth to power and standing up for the right to breathe clean air, the right to drink clean water and the right to eat clean food. Environmental Justice means equity for all, most of all, environmental justice means putting justice first."

- Rev. Michael Malcolm, pastor and advocate

Natalie Mebane has tackled environmental issues in the United States and the Caribbean, having family in both. She currently serves as the dirty fuels lobbyist for the Sierra Club, working to stop the spread of fossil fuel infrastructure. Source: Nexus Media

"Know your worth. You will be told almost daily that you are not good enough. Your intelligence, your experience, your insights and knowledge will continuously be questioned. You will make people uncomfortable simply by your presence in their space. Once you decide that this is your life's work, do not stop and do not be discouraged."

- Natalie Mebane, environmental advocate

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Nexus Media is a syndicated newswire covering climate, energy, policy, art and culture. Markeya Thomas, Shravya Jain-Conti, Mina Lee, Celia Gurney, Bartees Cox, Owen Agnew and Jeremy Deaton contributed to this report. Like What You're Seeing? Become a patron for as little as $1 per month. Sign up for our newsletter (for nothing!). Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes or Sticher. Share this story with others. Or just hang out. It's always good to kick it together.

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Twelve Black Climate Activists Changing Our World | Deceleration

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By Nexus Media The politics of climate change are shifting. This year, as the most diverse Congress in history was sworn in, its newest members called for an ambitious plan to overhaul the U.S. economy to draw down carbon pollution while tackling social injustice.

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The story of Native peoples' resistance to environmental injustice and land incursions, and a call for environmentalists to learn from the Indigenous community's rich history of activism

Through the unique lens of "Indigenized environmental justice," Indigenous researcher and activist Dina Gilio-Whitaker explores the fraught history of treaty violations, struggles for food and water security, and protection of sacred sites, while highlighting the important leadership of Indigenous women in this centuries-long struggle. As Long As Grass Grows gives readers an accessible history of Indigenous resistance to government and corporate incursions on their lands and offers new approaches to environmental justice activism and policy.

Throughout 2016, the Standing Rock protest put a national spotlight on Indigenous activists, but it also underscored how little Americans know about the longtime historical tensions between Native peoples and the mainstream environmental movement. Ultimately, she argues, modern environmentalists must look to the history of Indigenous resistance for wisdom and inspiration in our common fight for a just and sustainable future.

"Highly recommended for American Indian studies and environmental justice students and scholars."
- Library Journal

"Gilio-Whitaker takes the reader on a historical journey that, had it been penned about the Jewish Holocaust or the 'ethnic cleansing' conducted at the behest of any number of twentieth-century despots, would be well known. Yet when it comes to the United States's continuing campaign to wipe tribal communities from the map, most Americans are in a state of denial that such a thing could happen."
- Los Angeles Review of Books

"An important and accessible work recommended for students and scholars of political ecology from the undergraduate level up. Gilio-Whitaker's far-reaching work creates a compelling foundation upon which to add specific examples of the ongoing struggle for environmental justice and Indigenous rights during times of anthropogenic climate change. By connecting Native American history with the environmental justice movement in a clear and comprehensive manner, Gilio-Whitaker clarifies the depth of the wrong-doings of the past, while also opening the door to a wide range of opportunities for positive change in the future."
- Journal of Political Ecology

"A masterpiece and a vital road map for the ongoing fight for Indigenous sovereignty. With every heartbreaking example of sacred sites decimated and traditional knowledge suppressed, the power and resilience of Indigenous people, preserving not only their culture but their very lives, shines through. Powerful, urgent, and necessary reading."
-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

"The process of genocide, which began five centuries ago with the colonization of the Americas and the extermination of indigenous people, has now spread to the planetary level, pushing two hundred species per day to extinction and threatening the entire human species. Dina Gilio-Whitaker's As Long as Grass Grows makes these connections, holding the seeds of resistance, the seeds of freedom, and the promise of a future."
-Vandana Shiva, author of Earth Democracy

"Dina Gilio-Whitaker writes in succinct, powerful, and deeply historical ways about Natives and environmental justice or-almost always-lack thereof."
-Andrés Reséndez, author of The Other Slavery

" As Long as Grass Grows honors Indigenous voices powerfully and centers Indigenous histories, values, and experiences. It tells crucial stories, both inspiring and heartrending, that will transform how readers understand environmental justice. I know many readers will come away with new ideas and actions for how they can protect our planet from forces that seek to destroy some of our most sacred relationships connecting human and nonhuman worlds-relationships that offer some of the greatest possibilities for achieving sustainability."
-Kyle Powys White, associate professor, Michigan State University

"From Standing Rock's stand against a damaging pipeline to antinuclear and climate change activism, Indigenous peoples have always been and remain in the vanguard of the struggle for environmental justice. As Long as Grass Grows could not be of more relevance in the twenty-first century. Gilio-Whitaker has produced a sweeping history of these peoples' fight for our fragile planet, from colonization to the present moment. There is nothing else like it. Read and heed this book."
-Jace Weaver, author of Defending Mother Earth

"In As Long as Grass Grows, Gilio-Whitaker skillfully delineates the stakes-and the distinctive character-of environmental justice for Indigenous communities. Bold, extensive, accessible, and inspiring, this book is for anyone interested in Indigenous environmental politics and the unique forms of environmentalism that arise from Native communities. Indeed, as Gilio-Whitaker shows, these topics are intertwined with a pressing issue that concerns all people: justice for the very lands we collectively inhabit."
-Clint Carroll, author of Roots of Our Renewal

" As Long as Grass Grows is a hallmark book of our time. By confronting climate change from an Indigenous perspective, not only does Gilio-Whitaker look at the history of Indigenous resistance to environmental colonization, but she points to a way forward beyond Western conceptions of environmental justice-toward decolonization as the only viable solution."
-Nick Estes, assistant professor, University of New Mexico, and author of Our History Is the Future

" As Long as Grass Grows, in the way no other study has done, brilliantly connects historic and ongoing Native American resistance to US colonialism with the movement for environmental justice. This book helps teach us the central importance of Native theory and practice to transforming the radically imbalanced world that corporate capitalism has made into a world of balance through extended kinship with the social and natural environments on which human beings are dependent for life."
-Eric Cheyfitz, professor, Cornell University, and author of The Disinformation Age: The Collapse of Liberal Democracy in the United States

"This groundbreaking new book will ignite conversations about environmentalism and environmental justice. Dina Gilio-Whitaker's beautifully written account of environmental politics compels readers to understand how Indigenous people and the nonhuman world are caught in the gears of settler colonialism-and how an indigenized environmental justice framework can powerfully reframe our debate and our relations to one another and to the natural world around us. As Long as Grass Grows is perfectly timed to offer a fresh and captivating take on some of our most urgent issues of environmental and social justice."
-Traci Voyles, author of Wastelanding: Legacies of Uranium Mining in Navajo Country

Author's Note

INTRODUCTION
The Standing Rock Saga

CHAPTER ONE
Environmental Justice Theory and Its Limitations for Indigenous Peoples

CHAPTER TWO
Genocide by Any Other Name
A History of Indigenous Environmental Injustice

CHAPTER THREE
The Complicated Legacy of Western Expansion and the Industrial Revolution

CHAPTER FOUR
Food Is Medicine, Water Is Life
American Indian Health and the Environment

CHAPTER FIVE
(Not So) Strange Bedfellows
Indian Country's Ambivalent Relationship with the Environmental Movement

CHAPTER SIX
Hearts Not on the Ground
Indigenous Women's Leadership and More Cultural Clashes

CHAPTER SEVEN
Sacred Sites and Environmental Justice

CHAPTER EIGHT
Ways Forward for Environmental Justice in Indian Country

Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

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"Honoring Indigenous Peoples: 20 Recommended Reads," New York Public Library, book included in roundup

"10 Books Climate Activists Are Reading Now," YES! Magazine, included in "10 Books Climate Activists Are Reading Now" reading roundup

"The 10 Best Books On Climate Change, According to Climate Activists," Teen Vogue, listed in 10 Best Books on Climate Change roundup

"Coronavirus shows we must change how we live or face self-destruction," High Country News, op-ed

"The problem with wilderness," UU World, excerpt

"The Centuries-Long History of Extractive Greed," Common Dreams, book and author quoted in article

"As Long As Grass Grows: Dina Gilio-Whitaker," Real Food Media, podcast interview

"Books to give activists as they prepare for the upcoming election," Mashable, included in gift guide roundup

"Native Authors of California: A Shortlist," California Humanities, included in reading rounding featuring Native authors from CA

"12 Books by Indigenous Writers to Read this Indigenous Peoples Day," Literary Hub, listed in Indigenous Peoples' Day reading roundup

"Indigenous Peoples' Day, Scientific Knowledge, & the Teachings of Plants," Pluralism, Pragmatism, and Progressivism (a Patheos blog), quoted and mentioned in piece

"Environmentalism and Native People," KPFA/Against the Grain, interview

"How to Indigenize the Green New Deal and Environmental Justice," High Country News, op-ed

"The Contemporary Adventure Canon," Outside, write-up in reading roundup

"As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice," Bioneers, excerpt

"For Further Reading: New Native Histories of North America," Beyond the Spectacle (University of Kent blog), included in reading roundup

"When Grass Stops Growing," The Progressive, interview

"Decolonizing Surfer: Dina Gilio-Whitaker," OC Weekly, interview

"Book talk to focus on environmental conflicts in Native American history," Daily Bruin (UCLA Newspaper), write-up about UCLA author event

"We've spent 100 years growing a tinderbox across the West. Now it's wildfire season," Grist, book cited as source in video segment about Native American prescribed fires

"#ColorlinesReads: Get Some Perspective With These 5 Books," Colorlines, included in reading roundup

"CSUSM professor probes environmental impacts on Native Americans in new book," The Coast News Group, write-up

"What would an indigenized environmental justice movement look like?" KALW/Your Call, interview

"Dina Gilio-Whitaker," Cultures of Energy, podcast interview

"Steelworkers Strike Deal With Harley, Tracing Environmental Injustice Against Native People," WPR/The Morning Show, live interview

"Mainstream Settler Society Needs a Land- and Place-Based Ethic," Powell's blog, essay

"8 Must-Reads by Women Who Take on White Supremacy and Patriarchal Power," YES! Magazine, featured in reading roundup

"The Story We've Been Told About America's National Parks Is Incomplete," TIME.com, excerpt

"David Treuer on uncovering the untold Native American histories of 'Heartbeat of Wounded Knee,'" Los Angeles Times, Q&A with David Truer

"17 books every activist should read in 2019," Mashable, included in reading roundup

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the story of native peoples’ resistance to environmental injustice and land incursions

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and a call for environmentalists to learn from the indigenous community’s rich history of activism

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The story of Native peoples' resistance to environmental injustice and land incursions, and a call for environmentalists to learn from the Indigenous community's rich history of activism Through the unique lens of "Indigenized environmental justice," Indigenous researcher and activist Dina Gilio-Whitaker explores the fraught history of treaty violations, struggles for food and water security, and protection of sacred sites, while highlighting the important leadership of Indigenous women in this centuries-long struggle.

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Environmental racism and the struggle for climate justice

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Environmental racism and the struggle for climate justice

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Skip to main content

Climate change threatens all people, creatures, places, and systems on the planet, but not all impacts are distributed equally. Climate justice considers that climate change has unequal social, economic, health, and other effects on underprivileged populations. As well, in the U.S., the coronavirus' uneven impact on Black and Hispanic Americans and the recent reckoning with racial justice issues expose how the climate crisis disproportionately impacts these U.S. populations. Christina Kwauk, a fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings, interviews two people to unpack the issues on climate justice in the U.S. and around the world. Justin Worland is a D.C.-based correspondent for Time magazine covering issues on energy and the environment. Marinel Ubaldo is a climate activist from the Philippines and a founder of Youth Leaders for Environmental Action Federation. She also organized the Philippines' first youth climate strike in 2019.
Related: Why the Larger Climate Movement Is Finally Embracing the Fight Against Environmental Racism Education's role in building back better for the planet
Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

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Christina Kwauk, Marinel Ubaldo, and Justin Worland

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Environmental racism and the struggle for climate justice

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Skip to main content Climate change threatens all people, creatures, places, and systems on the planet, but not all impacts are distributed equally. Climate justice considers that climate change has unequal social, economic, health, and other effects on underprivileged populations.

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Call to Action: End Environmental Racism Now

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Call to Action: End Environmental Racism Now

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Call to Action: End environmental racism now

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New bill would help clean up legacy pollution which disproportionately harms Black, Indigenous, and Latinx children & communities.

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350.org: A global campaign to confront the climate crisis

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We are standing up to the fossil fuel industry to stop all new coal, oil and gas projects and build clean energy future for all.

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What do racism and poverty have to do with pollution and climate change?

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What do racism and poverty have to do with pollution and climate change?

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Grist | 2016

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We already know that pollution and climate change negatively affect people's health and quality of life. But we're not always clear about which people are most exposed and impacted.

The harm that comes with rising seas and contaminated water systems isn't evenly distributed. To the contrary: Those who are already disadvantaged by race, wealth, and income are usually the most affected by environmental disasters. Without recognizing that inequality, we're not always solving the problems with our water, air, and soil in ways that serve the people who need it most - which is why environmental justice is a critical part of planning a green future that's good for everyone.

If you've never heard the term "environmental justice" before, or if you just want to know more about it, watch our video above.

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What do racism and poverty have to do with pollution and climate change?

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We already know that pollution and climate change negatively affect people's health and quality of life. But we're not always clear about which people are most exposed and impacted. The harm that comes with rising seas and contaminated water systems isn't evenly distributed.

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One Earth: People of Color Protecting Our Planet

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One Earth: People of Color Protecting Our Planet

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Anuradha Rao | 2020

Amazon

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Making The Climate Movement Anti-Racist w/ Dr. Robert Bullard

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Making The Climate Movement Anti-Racist w/ Dr. Robert Bullard

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Sociologist and Environmental Justice Activist Dr. Robert Bullard came of age during the Civil Rights Movement. Back then, the conversation around how racism and environmentalism intersected hadn't gained much traction.

But Dr. Bullard began to make those connections through his research. He began to notice in cities across the country - from his hometown of Houston to Alabama to Louisiana - the ways in which black neighborhoods were made to bear the brunt of industrial pollution.

Dr. Bullard has dedicated his career to fighting environmental racism, and he believes that fight may have reached a turning point.

We spoke to him about why the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that have taken place over the past few weeks feel unique - even from other racial justice milestones he's witnessed.

And he gives us his take on what a President Biden could do to turn hopeful words into concrete action.

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Making The Climate Movement Anti-Racist w/ Dr. Robert Bullard - Climate 2020 Podcast

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Dr. Bullard has dedicated his career to fighting environmental racism, and he believes that fight may have reached a turning point. We spoke to him about why the recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations feel unique - even from other racial justice milestones he's witnessed. And he gives us his t

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A global push for racial justice in the climate movement

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For years, mainstream environmental movements around the globe have excluded people of color, who are disproportionately impacted by climate change. Today's global Black Lives Matter protests have amplified calls for institutions of all kinds - including environmental groups - to challenge and dismantle chronic systemic racism.

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Jewell Parker Rhodes | 2012
Amazon

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The Inseparable Link Between Climate Change And Racial Justice

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The Inseparable Link Between Climate Change And Racial Justice

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NPR

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subscribe to Short Wave podcast

subscribe to Short Wave podcast

Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson wrote a Washington Post op-ed about the ways the fight around climate change and racial justice go hand in hand. Host Maddie Sofia talks with her about that and how Ayana says the fight against climate change could be stronger if people of color weren't being constantly exhausted by racism.
Read Ayana's op-ed here:
Follow Maddie (@maddie_sofia) and Ayana (@ayanaeliza) on Twitter. Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Brit Hanson, fact-checked by Rebecca Ramirez and edited by Viet Le.

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The Inseparable Link Between Climate Change And Racial Justice : Short Wave

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Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson wrote a Washington Post op-ed about the ways the fight around climate change and racial justice go hand in hand. Host Maddie Sofia talks with her about that and how Ayana says the fight against climate change could be stronger if people of color weren't being constantly exhausted by racism.

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'Climate Change Is Racial Injustice': Students Speak Their Truth In Winning Podcast

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'Climate Change Is Racial Injustice': Students Speak Their Truth In Winning Podcast

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Sequoia Carrillo + Elissa Nadworny | NPR | 2020

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The club was supposed to meet once a week. But for many of the members of Men in Color, Wednesday afternoons turned into Monday afternoons and Thursdays too.

"After school, we were always in Mr. C's room," says Jaheim Birch-Gentles, a recent graduate of the High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn. He's referring to one of the club's advisors, Mischaël Cetoute. The club served as a safe space for students to talk through issues and ideas.

Those afternoon meetings gave rise to the Flossy Podcast, where the students tackle big social issues mixed in with their lived experiences.

Their episode about climate change and environmental racism is one of this year's grand-prize winners in the NPR Student Podcast Challenge. It was created by Jaheim and fellow club members Joshua Bovell, Brianna Johnson, Jamar Thompson, Kamari Murdock, Isaiah Dupuy, with theme music produced by club member Ieszan McKinney.

The episode begins with the idea that, "climate change Is racial injustice," and focuses on the idea that pollution and the environment impact communities differently - even within Brooklyn.

"For people growing up in Canarsie, we don't really realize we're living in these areas," says Joshua Bovell in the podcast. "But then you go somewhere else, like Mill Basin, and you're like, 'Why is this so different than where I live?' "

They visited a Climate Change March in Manhattan, where they saw mostly white people demonstrating. And in their podcast they wonder, aloud, Why?

They discuss the obvious barriers: Time. Location. Education. And then they bring in their own experiences, with climate events they've experienced, such as hurricanes, and the fact that their school sits near a landfill.

Environmental racism, explains Birch-Gentles in an interview, is "something that we can actually see and taste." He points to the situation with the school's drinking fountains: "People would drink from the water fountain and afterward they really wouldn't feel good," he says. It turns out, the school had lead in its pipes. Lead is actually a common problem in schools, especially in Brooklyn's aging buildings, where about 80 percent of public schools had a faucet or fixture leaching lead, according to a 2017 report.

The students cited in their reporting research that shows climate change, including rising temperatures in cities and poor air quality, disproportionately affects non-white neighborhoods. Black communities face dangerously high levels of pollution and are more likely to live near landfills and industrial plants that pollute water and air and erode quality of life, according to a 2018 report from the Environmental Protection Agency.

For co-host Jamar Thompson, the topic is not only urgent and relevant, it's also related to what's happening now with protests and Black Lives Matter. "Racism is like a tree," he says, "and police brutality and environmental racism are just a couple of branches off that giant tree."

Young people's voices often get left out of these conversations, says Thompson, and adults need to do a lot more listening.

"They feel as though, because we are young, we don't know what we're talking about when we speak about certain things. And I feel like that isn't true," he adds. " I don't speak about things I don't know about."

When he does know something, Thompson says, or when he sees something that isn't right, he speaks up about it. That's his message for young people especially now.

The Flossy Podcast wouldn't have been possible if the club hadn't decided to build a recording studio at the school, with help from several adults. It took about two years, a big grant, and lots of hard work.

When the students pitched the idea, "I was like, 'OK, let's make that happen,' " recalls Cetoute, a restorative justice coordinator from the Center for Court Innovation who helped oversee the club. "I promise you that it was the most frustrating process in the world. But when they finally get that support, they win something. And that completely changes, for the rest of their life I think, how much they will believe in the power of their voice."

Being OK with the way they sounded was a journey, says Birch-Gentles. "When I heard how everybody else hears me, it was completely different from what I hear."

But with each episode, he says, his confidence grew. "It forced me to get comfortable because this is how I sound and it's not changing."

He ended up writing his college essay about the experience.

When he first started podcasting, "I just viewed myself as a kid from the neighborhood of Canarsie, and I'm speaking about what I've seen and my experiences."

Birch-Gentles didn't think of himself as an activist then, and even now, he resists the term.

Jamar Thompson agrees. He sees himself in much simpler terms: "I'm a person who spoke his truth and I spoke about what I felt. That's kind of more of what I am."

Truth tellers. Sharing their experiences and their opinions and inspiring other young people to do the same.

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'Climate Change Is Racial Injustice': Students Speak Their Truth In Winning Podcast

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The club was supposed to meet once a week. But for many of the members of Men in Color, Wednesday afternoons turned into Monday afternoons and Thursdays too. "After school, we were always in Mr. C's room," says Jaheim Birch-Gentles, a recent graduate of the High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn.

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"I need you to understand that our racial inequality crisis is intertwined with our climate crisis."

-Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

The work of 1% for the Planet doesn't start and end with planting more trees, cleaning our oceans, protecting wildlife, curbing carbon emissions or banning plastic straws.

The climate crisis is much more complex and intertwined with many injustices and social inequities. From food insecurity and hazardous pollution to crippling natural disasters, the negative impacts of the environmental crisis affect people of color at much higher rates than other communities.

At 1% for the Planet, we state our purpose plainly: We exist to ensure that our planet and future generations thrive. However, achieving this goal requires a multi-faceted approach that addresses both environmental and social justice.

We've outlined a list of nonprofit organizations that work at the pivotal intersection of race and the environment. These organizations work on a range of issues from food insecurity and urban agriculture, to representation in the outdoors and leadership in climate advocacy.

We're amplify the voices and grassroots organizations addressing injustices. While the list of supported nonprofits in our network continues to grow, we encourage you to committed to using our platform to refer any organization that works on social and environmental justice to join our network.

Nonprofits fighting for social & environmental justice

We recognize that we cannot solve the climate crisis without recognizing the disproportionate impact of environmental issues. Justice does not work unless it works for everyone. The nonprofit organizations outlined below work at a pivotal intersection: social and environmental justice.

National, Oakland, CA

Outdoor Afro celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. With 80 outdoor leaders in 30 states, the nonprofit is changing the face of conservation while connecting thousands of people with the outdoors each year. Last year, Outdoor Afro brought together the first ever all Black expedition team to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Regional, Minnesota, USA

MN350 brings Minnesotans together to unite against pollution and build a better future for generations to come. Sam Grant, the Executive Director of MN350, was among one of the first climate activists to call for the prosecution of the police offices implicated in the murder of George Floyd. The organization also provided food and first-aid care to Black Lives Matter protestors.

Local, Portland, OR

OPAL stands for "Organizing People, Activating Leaders," and this is exactly what the nonprofit is doing. Founded in 2006 by and for people of color and low income, OPAL is a grassroots-driven hub fighting for Environmental Justice for all. OPAL builds power for environmental justice and civil rights by creating meaningful opportunities for their members to be directly involved in the decisions impacting their communities.

National, Bay Area, CA

WeGotNext uses storytelling to inspire individuals and remove barriers from outdoor spaces to empower environmental advocates. The nonprofit passes the mic to historically underrepresented communities in outdoor and environmental spaces to share their stories of activism and outdoor adventure. These stories help others see themselves in nature and inspire more advocacy, activism, and adventure.

Regional, California, USA

Communities for a Better Environment is fighting to achieve environmental health and justice by building grassroots power in and with communities of color and working-class communities. CBE provides residents in highly polluted areas in California with organizing skills, leadership training, and a foundation in activism and advocacy.

Local, San Francisco, CA

Urban Sprouts is building healthy and thriving neighborhoods through community and garden-based education in San Francisco. The nonprofit is using food and food gardens to connect communities to nature in urban settings. Food gardens are used to provide school programming, nutritional education, job readiness programs, and more. The mission brings food and food- based education to 2,000 people per year.

Local, Harlem, NY

Located in the heart of Harlem, Harlem Grown is inspiring youth to lead healthy lives by providing mentorship, education, and hands-on experiences in urban farming. Harlem Grown operates with the goal of increasing access to and knowledge of healthy food for Harlem residents, all while providing engaging and educational garden-based development programs to Harlem youth.

Local, Los Angeles, CA

Ron Finley, "the Gangsta Gardner", grew up in South Central Los Angeles, where fresh food was hard to find. In 2010, he decided to address the problem by planting food along L.A. parkways. The city pushed back, but Ron pushed harder for his community to have the right to fresh food. Today, through the Ron Finley Project empowers others to not just plant fresh food for their communities, but to enjoy it, and make food and nutrition a community backbone.

National, Washington D.C, USA

LCVEF plays a major role in the environmental movement's effort to make progress in the climate fight, as well as fighting for land and water rights. The nonprofit strives to put environmental issues at the forefront of political action, and is inspiring communities to speak out against environmental injustices.

Local, St. Louis, MO

Urban Harvest STL empowers communities to cultivate equitable access to healthy, sustainably grown food and enhance biodiversity in cities. The organization grows produce in seven urban farms in the heart of St. Louis and donates the majority of the harvest to nonprofits and communities with limited or no access to fresh food.

Local, New York City, NY

Just Food supports community leaders to advocate for and increase access to healthy, locally-grown food, especially in underserved NYC neighborhoods. Each year, nearly a quarter million New Yorkers access fresh food in their neighborhood through Just Food's network of community food projects. The nonprofit also empowers youth to get involved through education and training programs inspiring youth activism and leadership.

Regional, New York City, NY

City Blossoms provides bilingual affordable after-school, in-school, and summer programming to predominantly Latino and African-American youth ranging from ages two through teens. City Blossoms serves neighborhoods in which children and youth may not otherwise have access to green space. Since 2009, the nonprofit has worked on 42 sites in Washington DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.

Regional, Washington D.C, USA

Since its founding in 2001, City Slicker Farms has been at the forefront of sustainable urban farming and food justice, gaining national recognition as a leader in supporting low-income communities of color to grow food in the city. To date, City Slicker Farms has built over 400 backyard and community gardens, producing about 300,000 pounds of nutritious food while offering education to thousands of community members.

Local, Washington D.C, USA

The City Kids Wilderness Project, Inc. (City Kids) provides out-of-the-classroom education to underserved and at-risk youth in D.C.. Programs aim to prepare youth for adulthood, getting off on the right foot and ensuring that participants are ready to be active and connected community members.

International, Colorado, USA

Earth Guardians is empowering and training diverse youth to be effective leaders in the environmental, climate and social justice movements. To do this, they utilize the power of art, music, storytelling, civic engagement, and legal action. In learning these key skills, youth are able to step forward to dream up and implement solutions to some of the world's most pressing issues, starting in their own communities.

Local, Louisiana, USA

Louisiana Bucket Brigade uses grassroots action to hold the petrochemical industry and the government accountable for the true costs of pollution and bring light to the communities being impacted the most. By taking action, Louisiana Bucket Brigade fights to free neighborhoods from industrial pollution and hasten the transition from fossil fuels.

Regional, Oakland, CA

The Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment fights for a future where nature is protected, environmental justice is prioritized, and the people's rights are ensured. The nonprofit amplifies the voices of youth leaders in low-income communities and communities of color in Oakland, CA, so that they can become fierce advocates for the health of their communities.

Regional, New York City, NY

Teens for Food Justice is a youth-led movement with the goal of ending food insecurity and breaking the cycle of diet-related illness that impacts low-income communities, particularly those of color. TFFJ trains youth in hydroponic farming and growing and distributing fresh produce to food desert communities.

Local, San Diego, CA

Project New Village is committed to improving fresh food access in Southeastern San Diego and paving the way for healthy neighborhoods centered around social equity. To do this, PNV implements resident-led, community-rooted experiences that build stronger neighborhoods, improve the neighborhood food supply chain, and stimulate collective investment in better health and maximize the impact of investment to address social inequities.

International, London, UK

The Environmental Justice Foundation believes that environmental security is a human right. They're working with those on the frontlines of environmental destruction to investigate, document and expose environmental and human rights abuses.

International, Boulder, CO

Global Greengrants Fund is mobilizing resources for communities worldwide to protect our shared planet and work toward a more equitable world. The nonprofit puts environmental justice in the hands of those most affected by empowering frontline communities to take charge and resist the development of fossil fuels. The nonprofit focuses on women's rights, land and water rights, local action, and healthy ecosystems and communities.

National, British Columbia, Canada

RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs) raises legal defense funds to assist Indigenous Peoples who enforce their rights and title to protect their traditional territories. RAVEN hosts public education programs to collaborate with Indigenous communities and work toward eliminating environmental racism and foster a greater understanding of indigenous rights and governance.

Regional, Chicago, IL

Just Roots empowers communities to develop access to local, sustainably grown food. This organization achieves their mission through education, sustainable farming and community-building.
*Recently joined 1% for the Planet network as an approved nonprofit partner.

National, Southern USA

Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (F.A.R.M.S.) is a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing small farm land loss to ensure generational wealth and reducing hunger in rural low-income communities. The nonprofit assists farmers with retail market expansion to ensure future farm revenue and ensures quality service for participants.

Regional, Oakland, CA

Farms to Grow is a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with Black farmers and underserved sustainable farmers around the country. Farms to Grow is committed to sustainable farming and innovative agriculture practices which preserve cultural and biological diversity, the agro-ecological balance of the local environment.

Regional, Bay Area California, USA

The education program at Planting Justice activates people impacted by poverty and food injustice to create a more local and sustainable food system. By developing skills in ecological design, nutrition education, and multimedia arts, communities use urban gardens to connect with local and international struggles and movements for social justice.

Regional, Philadelphia, PA

Soil Generation is a regional network of Black farmers committed to using ecologically sustainable practices to manage land, grow food, and raise livestock that are healthy for people and the planet.

Local, Southside Chicago, IL

The Urban Growers Collective operates eight urban farms on 11 acres of land in Chicago's South Side and works with more than 33 partner organizations to create economic opportunity and boost healthy food access. Each farm uses organic methods and integrates education, leadership training, and food production.

National, Virginia, USA

The National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) represents African American farmers and their families in the United States. NBFA's education and advocacy efforts focus on civil rights, land retention, access to public and private loans, education and agricultural training, and rural economic development for black and other small farmers.

Regional, Black Belt, Southern USA

The Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund is a multidisciplinary, cooperative nonprofit ecosystem rooted in Black eco-cultural traditions and textile arts to regenerate custodial landownership, ecological stewardship, and food and fiber economies in the South.

Regional, Southeast Georgia, USA

New Communities is a grassroots organization that has worked for more than 40 years to empower African American families in Southwest Georgia and advocate for social justice. New Communities Inc. is long recognized as the first land trust organization in the US, is continuing to initiate the discussions around race equality, economic disparities and opportunities for small farmers.

International, Washington D.C, USA

Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural has served as a voice of African-American, American Indian, Asian-American, Euro-American and Latino farmers, farmworkers, and rural communities in the US, as well as indigenous and campesino groups in Mexico and beyond for 40 years.

National, Washington D.C

Soul Trak Outdoors is a D.C. based nonprofit organization that connects communities of color to outdoor spaces while also building a coalition of diverse outdoor leaders. We run a variety of programming to serve hands-on, experiential programming.

Regional, Georgia, USA

The Greening Youth Foundation's (GYF) mission is to engage under-represented youth and young adults, while connecting them to the outdoors and careers in conservation. GYF's cultural based environmental education programing engages children from local communities and exposes them to healthy lifestyle choices in order to create an overall healthy community.

National, Vermont, USA

The Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform supports diverse movement towards safe chemicals and clean energy that leaves no community or worker behind

Local, Baltimore, MD

Whitelock Community Farm is a vibrant open space that grows food and activates community to promote social equity in the neighborhood. We work to promote dialogue about food access, neighborhood development, and environmental justice.

Local, Berkeley, CA

Wanda teaches how to plant the seeds of wisdom necessary to build a sustainable and just future.

Regional, Texas, USA

Black Outside, Inc has one simple mission: Reconnect Black/ African-American youth to the outdoors through culturally relevant outdoor experiences

National, Washington, USA

Community to Community works to empower underrepresented peoples to have an equal voice in decision making processes, develop cross-cultural awareness, restore justice to food, land and cultural practices, promote community relationships toward self-reliance, work in solidarity with those that strive toward human rights for all and rescue the value of feminine intellect and leadership.

Regional, Seattle, WA

Got Green organizes for environmental, racial and economic justice as a South Seattle-based grassroots organization led by people of color. The organization cultivates multi-generational community leaders to be central voices in the green movement in order to ensure that the movement's benefits (green jobs, healthy food, energy efficient & healthy homes, public transit) reach low income communities and communities of color.

Regional, Los Angeles, CA

Nature for All aims to ensure that everyone in the Los Angeles area has equitable access to the wide range of benefits which nature provides. This organization builds support to protect, create access to our forests, rivers, and parks and developing a new diverse generation of environmental leaders and stewards who connect to and care for our public lands.

Local, Cleveland, OH

Rid-All Institute turned an empty and forgotten piece of land in Cleveland's Kinsman Neighborhood into an urban farm where they grow produce to bring healthy, local food to area institutions and citizens and train others on this work.

National, Washington D.C, USA

HEAL's mission is to build collective power to create food and farm systems that are healthy for our families, accessible and affordable for all communities, and fair to the hard-working people who grow, distribute, prepare, and serve our food - while protecting the air, water, and land we all depend on.

Local, New York, USA

Soul Fire Farm is a BIPOC-centered community farm committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system.

Local, New Haven, CT

Gather New Haven promotes health, equity and justice for people and the environment by cultivating connections with each other and our local lands and waters and by inspiring us to care for ourselves, our community and the natural world.

Regional, Washington, USA

Communities of color, people with lower incomes, and indigenous people are on the frontlines of climate and environmental change-hit first by extraction, pollution, and climate change, which makes existing health and economic disparities worse. Front and Centered ensures these communities are included in the transition to a healthy, resilient and sustainable future.

Local, King County, WA

The Service Board (tSB) mentors teens to conquer personal and cultural challenges through outdoor adventure, environmental and social justice education, and public service.

National, Portland, OR

The Center for Diversity and the Environment harnesses the power of racial and ethnic diversity to transform the US environmental movement by developing leaders, catalyzing change within institutions, and building alliances.

International, Utah, USA

1% for the Planet member Alex Honnold started the Honnold Foundation to advance and increase the accessibility of solar energy. The foundation provides grants to organizations advancing solar energy. These organizations focus on environmental standards, social equity, and strong ties with the communities that they serve. The Honnold Foundation secures solar energy in communities around the world. Photo by Patrick Bentley, SolarAid.

Local, Richmond, Virginia

Blue Sky Fund is bringing youth living in urban areas to the outdoors through nature programming offered to students from elementary to high school. Programming is meant to engage students in a way that will help them succeed academically with a focus on science. Blue Sky Fund develops leadership and confidence with team activities, a strong support network, and exciting outdoor adventures.

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Nonprofits fighting for social & environmental justice

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"I need you to understand that our racial inequality crisis is intertwined with our climate crisis." -Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson The work of 1% for the Planet doesn't start and end with planting more trees, cleaning our oceans, protecting wildlife, curbing carbon emissions or banning plastic straws.

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Women's Environment and Development Organization

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Climate and Environmental Justice (ENGLISH)

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ProPublica | 2017

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A Brief History of Environmental Justice

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Young Voices for the Planet

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Young Voices for the Planet is proud to show the story of Jaysa, a 13-year old girl from Bridgeport, Connecticut who speaks out at public hearings and helps catalyze the opposition to the coal-fired power plant that is causing her asthma. She addresses environmental racism in her community and reflects on the power a single voice can have on creating positive change. Watch and see what happens!

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This Is Why Climate Change Is an Existential Threat to Black People

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This Is Why Climate Change Is an Existential Threat to Black People

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The Root | 2019

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This Is Why Climate Change Is an Existential Threat to Black People

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Climate Justice and Air Pollution in Illinois | Youth & Climate

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Climate Justice and Air Pollution in Illinois | Youth & Climate

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Alliance for Climate Education | 2018 |

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Climate Justice and Air Pollution in Illinois | Youth & Climate

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Why Climate Change is Anti-Justice | Hot Mess 🌎

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United Nations adopts landmark resolution on climate justice

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United Nations adopts landmark resolution on climate justice

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A UN resolution was adopted on Wednesday that should make it easier to hold polluting countries legally accountable for failing to tackle the climate emergency, in a vote which was hailed as a historic victory for climate justice.

The UN general assembly adopted by consensus the resolution spearheaded by Vanuatu, a tiny Pacific island nation vulnerable to extreme climate effects, and youth activists to secure a legal opinion from the international court of justice (ICJ) to clarify states' obligations to tackle the climate crisis - and specify any consequences countries should face for inaction.

"Today we have witnessed a win for climate justice of epic proportions," said Ishmael Kalsakau, prime minister of Vanuatu. "Today's historic resolution is the beginning of a new era in multilateral climate cooperation, one that is more fully focused on upholding the rule of international law and an era that places human rights and intergenerational equity at the forefront of climate decision-making."

"We are just ecstatic that the world has listened to the Pacific youth," said Cynthia Houniuhi, president of Pacific Island students fighting climate change (PISFCC). "Through no fault of our own, we are living with devastating tropical cyclones, flooding, biodiversity loss and sea level rise. We have contributed the least to the global emissions that are drowning our land.

"As young people, the world's failure to stop planet-killing emissions is not a theoretical problem. It is our present and it is our future that is being sold out."

The resolution, which was co-sponsored by more than 120 countries including the UK, but not the US, will help establish a legal litmus test of sorts for the global climate justice movement seeking to hold countries to account for climate failures in the courts.

It comes on the day the Biden administration opened an auction to drill 73m acres of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas - and just days after the self-acclaimed "climate president" approved a massive, multi-decade-long oil and gas drilling project in Alaska, which will create one of the largest "carbon bombs" on US soil.

While the opinion from the world's highest court will not be binding in domestic courts, establishing international legal rules can be influential on judges and governments. It also represents the first attempt to establish climate action obligations under international law, which advocates hope will strengthen climate-related litigation by helping vulnerable states and advocates hold countries accountable for their action and inaction.

The resolution emerged out of mounting frustration at the mismatch between the global community's rhetoric and action on climate change, amid escalating losses for countries such as Vanuatu, which face an existential threat due to sea-level rise. The frustration spurned a social movement led by Vanuatu law students turned youth activists, and work on the resolution was led by Indigenous lawyers in the Pacific.

In essence, the ICJ advisory will help establish whether there is legal obligation for countries to do what they have committed to in non-binding treaties such as the 2015 Paris climate accord, and whether failure to do so can be challenged through litigation.

It comes a week after the final report by the IPCC, which underscored the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels to curtail global heating and avoid catastrophic climate chaos. Transitioning to renewables and green technology is not enough, warned scientists, fossil fuels projects must be phased out, not expanded.

Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, said: "The UN resolution to take the issue of climate change to the world's highest court is a historic moment in the fight for climate justice, human rights and intergenerational equity.

"The advisory opinion must serve as an important accountability tool towards states obligations in protecting the environment and future generations from climate impacts."

Vanuatu, an archipelago of islands 500 miles west of Fiji with about 325,000 habitants, was last month hit by two category 4 hurricanes within 72 hours of each other. They caused widespread infrastructure damage, evacuation and left residents without water and electricity for several days.

Island nations and developing countries such as Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands Madagascar and Sri Lanka have contributed least to global greenhouse-gas emissions, but are bearing the brunt of erratic and extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods, drought, and extreme heat and floods that is upending water and food security, and fueling forced migration.

The historic resolution was adopted as countries met in Egypt for the first time to discuss the creation of a loss-and-damage funding facility to compensate countries for the irreversible effects of extreme weather events and sea-level rise that are too late to avoid by climate adaptation and mitigation.

"The International Court of Justice can translate the clear scientific evidence that fossil fuels are driving the climate crisis into clear legal imperatives to phase them out now and implement proven, available solutions. An advisory opinion could help spur greater accountability for the mounting suffering caused by states' failure to act," said Nikki Reisch from the Center for International Environmental Law.

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United Nations adopts landmark resolution on climate justice

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A UN resolution was adopted on Wednesday that should make it easier to hold polluting countries legally accountable for failing to tackle the climate emergency, in a vote which was hailed as a historic victory for climate justice.

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Climate justice can't happen without racial justice

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Climate justice can't happen without racial justice

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David Lammy: Climate justice can't happen without racial justice

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Why has there been so little mention of saving Black lives from the climate emergency? For too long, racial justice efforts have been distinguished from climate justice work, says David Lammy, Member of Parliament for Tottenham, England.

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Dr. Robert Bullard: The Father of Environmental Justice

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Dr. Robert Bullard: The Father of Environmental Justice

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Greg Dalton: This is Climate One, changing the conversation about energy, the economy, and the environment.

On today's program, we honor a sociologist recognized as the father of environmental justice.

Robert Bullard: When you don't protect the least in your society you place everybody at risk. Justice will say, let's do fairness, equity and justice to make sure that we do not somehow say just because you live in a low-income neighborhood that you don't deserve to have a park, a grocery store and flood protection.

Greg Dalton: Dr. Robert Bullard's relationship with the environment began as a child growing up in the south, hunting and fishing with his father. His commitment to social justice was strengthened by the activism of the 1960's.

Robert Bullard: We were fearless, we weren't afraid of going to jail. We weren't afraid of basically people saying, well, you gonna get a C. Well, you know, having a C and can't breathe, what's the purpose?

Greg Dalton: Dr. Robert Bullard - this year's recipient of the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Communication. Up next on Climate One.

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Greg Dalton: Is a clean and healthy environment a civil right?

Climate One conversations feature oil companies and environmentalists, Republicans and Democrats, the exciting and the scary aspects of the climate challenge. I'm Greg Dalton.

On today's program - social justice meets climate justice.

Robert Bullard: When we talk about communities that are on the front line we talk about the most impact and we talk about the economic consequences and we talk about the health effects. We talk about the whole idea of communities that will somehow culturally disappear.

Greg Dalton: Dr. Robert Bullard is Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy, Texas Southern University. He's the author of eighteen books that address issues such as environmental racism, climate justice, disasters, regional equity and more. The Sierra Club named an environmental justice award after him in 2014, and he was named one of the world's 100 most influential people in climate policy by Apolitical.

This year, Climate One is awarding Dr. Bullard with The Stephen Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Communication. The late Dr. Schneider was a brash and brilliant scientist and communicator and an early advisor to me when I founded Climate One in 2007. After he died in 2010, I created the award, now $15,000, to honor scientists who are strong communicators.

Robert Bullard grew up in rural Alabama, not far from Montgomery - a center of the civil rights movement.
PROGRAM PART 1
Robert Bullard: Well, you know I grew up in an era where everything was segregated in the south. And, you know, I went to an all-black elementary school, middle school, high school. I never had a white teacher until I went to Iowa State University, worked on a PhD. My undergraduate university was all black, Alabama A&M University. So I grew up in an area where civil rights and fighting for justice was the same in voting and young people and students. I was part of that, you know, that student movement and so my parents and grandparents, you know, they were strong supporters of voting. Now I didn't see myself, you know, growing up as an environmentalist, but in terms of growing up where having gardens and having this whole idea of not wasting things and being creative with the little that you have. I didn't grew up impoverished or anything, you know, we had a little money because my great-grandparents actually was able to get 550 acres of timberland and ten years after slavery we don't know how they got it, but we know they got it. And that's how my parents were able to sell the timber every six or seven years to send all my siblings to college. And so I was very aware of the environment in terms of outdoors and trees and nature. But it was not I guess rooted in this whole idea of modern environmentalism.

The idea of being outdoors and having rivers that were clean and pristine because my parents, my dad mostly fished, he was not an angler. It wasn't catch and release it was catch and bring home, clean and eat. And so that idea was all instilled and so it was not as I said the whole idea of being of how environmentalism was defined. We're not members of organizations that had environment in the name but we were concerned about the environment we worked on environmental issues in a way that went unnoticed.

It was not until, you know, first Earth Day for example in 1970, April, I was in Marine Corps and there was a war going on, it's called Vietnam. And so I was not you know, at the first Earth Day but it did not mean that I was not, you know, concerned about environmental issues. There were other issues that were like civil rights and voting etc. that had high priority but breathing also had a good priority also.

[Laughter]

Greg Dalton: More immediate and personal. I learned in your book that Dr. King was called to Memphis in 1968 and we all know that but I bet a lot of people don't know why Dr. King was in Memphis in 1968. Tell us.

Robert Bullard: Dr. King was called to Memphis in support of striking sanitation workers. And if you don't think garbage is an environmental issue that the garbage workers go on strike. And as a matter of fact in '68 they had to call out the National Guard to pick up the garbage and Dr. King was assassinated in April before he could finish his job. And of course I was in April 1968, I was a senior in college and of course devastated. That's a long time ago but you think about it that's not that long ago. We think about this whole idea of civil rights and environmental rights. And for the last, you know, 25, 30, 40 years to get civil rights and environmental rights to converge it took a lot of work and convincing our environmental brothers and sisters organizations, but also it took a lot of convincing of folks on civil rights to work on these issues with the same fervor that they brought to civil rights and human rights. And it finally occurred with the convergence into what we call environmental justice.

Greg Dalton: And in the late 1970s, 1979, a seminal moment in that conversion, Congress banned PCBs in 1979 and there was effort to find a dump basically for these toxic carcinogenic chemicals and a spot was identified in Warren County, North Carolina, a new landfill. And that in some ways there's sort of the creation story of environmental justice. So tell us what happened there and you worked with Benjamin Chavis who played a key role in that.

Robert Bullard: Well, Dr. Chavis led the struggle in Warren County in 1978 when it's coming from New York came down to Raleigh and wanted to recycle this oil. And they find out that the oil that they were gonna recycle had been contaminated with PCBs. And since they couldn't recycle it because of the law they dumped it along the highways and they cleaned it up. Then they needed a place to put this contaminated dirt. And so they went through this rigorous process of selecting the most scientifically suitable place. And of course there was no science the only science in law was political science. And when they opened the envelope the winner was Warren County. One of the poorest and one of the blackest counties in the state. And Dr. Chavis and the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice and NAACP and the communities in Warren County said no. And Dr. Chavis coined the term environmental racism this is environmental racism.

And almost 500 people were arrested, you know, 1983 it was a pivotal year in that, you know, Dr. Chavis and the commission the general accounting office to do a study on what was happening in the South. They found out 75% of the hazardous waste facilities in the South located in black communities, even though blacks only made up 20% of population. And so the idea of this national movement gaining steam out of Warren County and that they were isolated, struggles going on all across the country even the one in Houston and other places across the country. But Warren County put the issue on the map and people put their bodies in streets. High school kids laying prone trying to stop these dump trucks and people are arrested and the continuous sustained struggle. People saying, no, no, no and this is when the environmental justice movement came together and people started to identify with that struggle. And so that was a shot heard around the world, Warren County.

Greg Dalton: And as the United Church of Christ played a -- what's the racial complexion of the United Church of Christ?

Robert Bullard: Well the United Church of Christ is a white denomination, but the commission for racial justice was a black civil rights organization based in the church, faith-based group in the church. And the whole concept of merging civil rights and environmental rights and the faith community that was something that emerged out of the civil rights movement. Struggle against injustice whether it was housing, voting, education it now had basically been pushed into the right to live in a clean, healthy environment where were you don't get dumped on just because of the color of your skin or the amount of money you make.

That was novel and you would think it would be commonplace, you know, since everybody breathes the air and drinks water and eat food you would think that that would be something that was real and not aspirational. We don't decide on Tuesday we're not gonna breathe, so it's like this is something that should be basic.

Greg Dalton: And it took the church and moral leadership to help kind of fuse that, put that in a moral frame.

Robert Bullard: Yes, it did. And the idea that young people, got out of school and cut classes, this is 1983, '82 and basically said no --

Greg Dalton: The height of Reaganism.

Robert Bullard: Yes. Yes. And so when you talk about this whole idea of social movements and the role that young people and students have played. Every social movement that has been successful in this country has had a strong youth and student component. Back in Warren County with that birth of the environment justice movement the civil rights movement, peace and justice, women's movement and right now the climate movement. You look at young people and what they're doing what they're saying. They are owning these issues and they're saying no, we don't have to wait until we can vote to be mindful of the fact that we are destroying this earth and we are on the wrong direction and we have to do something about climate crisis.

It reminds me of us in the 60s. We were fearless we weren't afraid of going to jail. We weren't afraid of basically people saying, well, you gonna get a C. Well, you know, having a C and can't breathe what's the purpose. And so the idea that there's a calling that you have to say, no we have to change. And those with the most energy who can you think of other than young people they have lots of energy. And so we have this intergenerational movement struggle for justice and I'm biased, you know, I am for justice.

Greg Dalton: Environmentalism is often been a bipartisan issue in this country. Certainly President Nixon would be a radical environmentalist by today's standards. The first President Bush, I learned from you, was surprised actually created the first office of environmental equity in the EPA. Tell us about that creation and why?

Robert Bullard: Well, you know, the creation of that office was the impetus that followed a conference that was organized by Paul Mohai and Bunyan Bryant at the University Michigan where they basically pull together a few of us few academics and you could almost fit them on one hand that we're working on, this is 1991, working on environmental justice. And they had a conference at the University of Michigan raising the incidence of environmental hazards. And a few governmental people, EPA was there and some community people. The conference was such a great conference they said we need to write the EPA and the persons counseling on environmental quality and Health and Human Services and ask for an audience with them and we got an audience with EPA, William Reilly and we had a sitdown. William Reilly was an environmentalist, a conservationist, he came and director of EPA, a Republican. So after we met with him he made a commitment.

We'd have conference calls every quarter every three -- is a quarter three months? Okay. And so he made a commitment to us that he would make some changes inside of the EPA and he created the office of environmental equity. Now, we wanted the office of environmental justice we said we're not asking for equity. Equity means in some people's mind meant that we were talking about spreading the poison equally. Now we said no, that's not equity that's madness. We said we want justice, no community to be poisoned. So he created this office and then he produced the first national report on environmental justice. The report was entitled environmental equity reducing risk for all community. Still they were afraid of justice for some reason but equity was a softer term. We say you can call that title anything you want but we know what we want from our justice communities around the country. And then they had a definition they defined environmental justice and then they defined just treatment. You know the government has to define anything before they can do anything.

Greg Dalton: You're receiving the Stephen Schneider Award for climate communication, Stephen Schneider was a fearless communicator and he was in the natural sciences but he had a unique I think understanding he talk to economists and social scientists across the disciplinary communication which was fairly rare in the climate world back then. So I'd like to hear your thoughts on the importance of kind of communicating the science and sociology and kind of the different disciplines speaking about climate which is seen kind of as an atmospheric far away issue; at least it has been.

Robert Bullard: I think the idea of climate change and this whole issue of the science and how we communicate that science. And to expand what it means when we talk about climate crisis or global warming or climate change that climate change has to be defined more than parts per million and more than greenhouse gases. When we talk about communities that are on the front line we talk about the most impact and we talk about the economic consequences and we talk about the health effects. We talk about the whole idea of communities that will somehow culturally disappear. And when we define and communicate that outward then we have more people that will come to the table and say, oh I understand what you're talking about. I am you know, we don't ask people to believe; it's not a belief. It's like asking people do you believe in gravity, jump off a 12-story building. So when we talk about communicating the issues I think we have to be multilingual when it comes to different disciplines. You know I've written 18 books on transportation, housing, you know, on food security on disasters and they got catchy titles. But it's just as, it's 18 books but it's just one book don't tell anybody. The thing that hold those books together is fairness, justice and equity.

And when you look at climate and look at the fairness justice and equity with the science part you can see how the justice part that's the policy. And that's how we ought to start addressing this because, you know, we could have deal with climate change in one little corner of the earth and not deal with all these other equitable or inequity and still not address the total picture locally as well as globally. And so what I'm trying to do is when we talk about climate change and we talk about these other issues how we bring in economics. We bring in transportation, energy. You know, I wrote a book called Just Transportation, yeah, Just Transportation. Get it? But the idea is -- and I wrote another book called that dealt with transportation called Highway Robbery. So if you look at, you know, both of those deal with energy, mobility, they deal with issues of infrastructure. And so when you start defining and bringing in the climate piece you're talking about energy you're talking about transportation you're talking about infrastructure, you're talking about jobs, you're talking about access to opportunity, all those things. And we used to get all, oh you're talking about social issues we deal with the environment.

You have to do what you have to do and you have to bring organizations bring the idea of justice, fairness and equity even some of the smartest people along. Because sometimes people are only thinking in their own way of thinking. And so in communicating out you try to bring those people in I guess a way that they can see how things work. And the word for the day is intersectionality. Intersectionality. How things connect and how you can make sure that people understand those connections. It's like connecting the dots. It's like kids' work. You know, as a kid you used to connect the dots that's what we're doing.

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Greg Dalton: You're listening to a Climate One conversation with Dr. Robert Bullard. When we come back - how post-Harvey recovery efforts brought the fight for equality to Houston's poorest neighborhoods.

Robert Bullard: It took a biblical flood to get environmental groups...to come together with groups of the environmental justice, groups of faith-based groups, groups working on transportation and food security, etc. to come together. And we say it should not take a disaster for us to come together.

Greg Dalton: That's up next, when Climate One continues.

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Greg Dalton: This is Climate One. I'm Greg Dalton, and we're talking about the intersection between civil rights and climate equality. My guest is Dr. Robert Bullard, Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University and widely recognized as a founder of the growing field of environmental justice.

Joining us now is Adrianna Quintero, director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Energy Foundation. She began her involvement in the environmental justice as a litigator for the Natural Resources Defense Council. But she soon realized there was a disconnect between the organization and the community they were representing.
PROGRAM PART 2
Adrianna Quintero: We were working on pesticides litigation. And so it was very obvious to me that there should be some Latino farmworkers represented in these cases. And while they were referenced and we were talking about them we weren't talking to them. There was not that connection at least and we were doing the litigation. So for me that was a clear disconnect and something that needed to be addressed. Fortunately, I was working with a really amazing lawyer who is very committed to environmental justice to this day. And he just basically said, you're right, let's go do it. Let's go and start figuring this out.

And that began my journey to try and to really learn I had to educate myself. I did not come to this work knowing all the history and this wonderful work that people like Dr. Bullard had done and the environmental justice movement had done. So for me, it was really a learning journey to see and try and make sense of the disconnect which to this day I have trouble understanding how we got there how we got here, how we got to the point where the environmental movement really lost touch with the humanity and the communities that were most impacted. It just continues to motivate me every day.

Greg Dalton: Dr. Bullard I'm a big believer that business models drive a lot of organizational behavior and a lot of the environmental groups rely on upper income coastal elites to write checks to fund their organization. In 1991, you were part of a group of people who wrote to the Big Ten environmental groups and said you're not -- I think you even wrote an article saying can Houston be green if it's not brown or black did I got that right? So, tell us about you know are environmental groups you said the Sierra Club wouldn't allow black people are they afraid of race because of their funders?

Robert Bullard: Well, you know, I don't want to go into anybody's head. I'm a sociologist not a psychologist. But I do know that if a green organization does not look at the change in demographics of this country and start to I wouldn't say color coordinate, but at least color coordinate and diversify then they're gonna find themselves losing memberships or whatever.

What we have found over the years is that when we organize the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991 under the auspices of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice and Dr. Chavis, we basically said that people of color must be in a room must and communities on the frontline must have a voice at the table. And when we had those 4-day summits we said that we will developed out of this summit organizing principles. And when people went back home many of them organized grassroots organizations and started networks, etc.

And what we says is that we will press and pressure the green groups to become more diverse in terms of their boards and their staffs and agendas. But that would not be the driver at the forefront of our movement. Our movement is to make sure that those communities of color that are faced with many challenges when it comes to environment need to have their organization their institutions funded at the level that's commensurate with the problem. Because if we somehow keep funding the same groups and we keep, you know, add one or two persons to the board what I call the "whom" syndrome, we have one minority. If we start using that principle the money will still flow and you'll have a whom on a board and that still won't solve the problem of organizations of color that are underfunded. We can do both. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We must diversify the organization but we also must diversify the funding. Can I get a hand?

[Applause]

Greg Dalton: So Adrianna Quintero, you work for an organization that funds about $100 million, which is relatively small in the big world of philanthropy. But there have been studies done that show that the lion's share of philanthropy goes to the big national organization which are predominantly white. Have philanthropists done a good job to responding to Dr. Bullard's call?

Adrianna Quintero: No. And I would go ahead and also and add to the answer that Dr. Bullard put so well. I think there has been a discomfort with talking about race. There has been a discomfort with facing looking in the mirror and realizing that big changes need to be made. And when things appear, appear and I really emphasize "appear" to be working, it's even harder. But working for who, right or whom, right. But no really, how are they truly working. And I think it's taken far too long, at least as long as I've been in the movement to come to that realization that now we're seeing philanthropists realized we really missed the boat on this. We're so far beyond time to really get close and just take the spotlight off of the white groups and look at the communities that are facing these problems every single day. Because where is the knowledge more rich than there. And I think this overreliance on science and data really dulled us I think for a long time and drew us away from the stories which is really what motivates people and motivates change. And I think that's why to your point earlier why we're seeing so much movement is because that energy is driven by the story. And so I'm heartened to start to see the change now but we didn't have to wait this long.

Greg Dalton: Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. His latest book is called How To Be an Antiracist. At the Commonwealth Club recently, Kendi was asked how we can talk about racism and antiracism in a way that helps people understand where they fall.

[Start Playback]

[00:39:33] Ibram X. Kendi: It's not who a person is. It is what a person is doing in that moment and people change. And so people when we were talking about healthcare they can speak from an antiracist perspective then when we talk about criminal justice they think that black people are dangerous. But then when we talk about education they believe that inequities stem from resource inequities. But then when we start talking about climate change they're like what climate change, right. That is not affecting the global South more than the global North, right. And so ultimately people are distinct when it comes to different issues, but then also even on the same issues, even in the same speech even in the same paragraph of the same speech, people can say both racist and antiracist things.

[End Playback]

Greg Dalton: That was Ibram X. Kendi, professor and author of the recent book How To Be an Antiracist. So Dr. Bullard, your response there that people can kind of move in and out of that place based on the issues they're addressing.

Robert Bullard: Yes, exactly. And I think when we talk about race it's very difficult for some people to talk about race they shut down. And so just like the concept of justice. Justice, when we're talking about justice at EPA, you know, back in '91 they saw that as threatening. And so in some cases when you say, well no we want justice. Justice means going back looking at some of the things that -- distributive kinds of challenges and policies that have legacy issues that go back.

And so when we talk about race and racism and when the environmental justice groups wrote that letter to the Big Ten back in '91, not the football Big Ten, the green groups they were called Big Ten, for all you youngsters out there, way back when. A lot of the groups got offended. How dare, they said, well look at your boards, all white is it? Yeah. They said, look at your staff, all white. Yeah. Look at your agendas. Yeah. So we're not calling you racist we're just saying what you're doing is not working on our behalf.

Then some of them said, well, because all the green groups are not, it's not broad brush they're different just like the environmental justice groups different. They said, well, you know, we're gonna make some changes we're gonna go forward. And some of them did. Some of them say, how dare you call us racist we don't want any part of you. And so you see some of that and so you can look at that trajectory of who has been out front moving things and trying to address things and trying to reach out and trying to, you know, bring in partners and coalitions and alliances and etc. and who is not.

And I'm not gonna call any names but I could but I don't have to. If you're engaged with some of these organizations some of these groups we had to fight our oldest civil rights organization, not calling name but you know the initials. We have to fight them because they said we don't work on environmental issues. And we say are you concerned about black people breathing? And then it took 20 years for our mainstream civil rights organization to get on board with these issues of environmental justice because they're saying oh you're trying to shut down jobs. We say no. We want people to have good jobs safe in terms of the workplace and fenceline communities. We want the fenceline communities to be safe as well as the workers. When we start explaining to them what we're talking about they said, oh we get it.

So unpacking that kind of injustice and when it's racism call it for what it is don't run from it. And like I said, all injustice is not racism. It took us almost 10 years for the people in Appalachia or Appalachia whichever you want to call it, to understand that we were not calling all environment injustice racism. And lot of the whites in Appalachia were somewhat hesitant about working with us because they were thinking that we were talking about racism all the time. We said no. Mountaintop removal, contaminating your water, contaminating your air making people sick. We will fight just as hard for you to get and keep clean air, clean water and safety in your neighborhoods, etc. as we would in Mississippi or in Louisiana or Texas. See this whole idea that some way people can't fathom the fact that black people and people of color and indigenous people are out front ahead of a lot of the very smart organizations who have PhDs at their heads and engineers and environmental scientists at their head when it took them 20 years to understand what we are talking about. And we were writing and speaking in English.

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Greg Dalton: If you're just joining us, Dr. Robert Bullard is distinguished professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University. And Adrianna Quintero is director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with the Energy Foundation. I'm Greg Dalton.

Adrianna Quintero, the Green New Deal is this aspirational thing that's out there that a lot of people probably couldn't quite define but it's stirred quite a debate. And I think that the inclusion of some of the justice and economic issues that Dr. Bullard is talking about scare some liberals makes them uncomfortable because they think they're going to lose some of their privilege some of their wealth, is that fair?

Adrianna Quintero: I think that's fair, I think that's why it stirred so much debate. But to quote again what Dr. Bullard said earlier. The Green New Deal came on the scene with a big bang because of the intersectionality that it presented. And it really brought to light the reality that we can no longer think of the environment as one bucket that just sits alone in this silo. No, it has to do with transportation, it has to do with housing, it has to do with jobs it has to do with health. All of these things are tied directly to our environment to where we live to our opportunities. And there is absolutely no threat to thinking of it that way. That's actually how we break this logjam that we've had and frankly take the energy out of the others who debate whether or not environmentalism is something that's important.

When we start to show the connection to every single part of our lives it's undeniable. So anyone who is nervous about this particular piece of legislation just needs to look at how it's energized the conversation. It has sparked debate like no other piece of policy has at least and again in my lifetime in this movement and I think that is where we need to be. We need to start talking about solutions that actually benefit everybody and benefit all the aspects of our lives. Because if we continue to silo environment, we're gonna lose a lot of people and it's just not realistic. And the people who are gonna be most impacted are communities of color which we were just talking about the insanity behind excluding communities.

When you look at the polling behind communities of color, every single time we've looked at it the support that exists for climate policies the awareness of the fact that climate change is happening is so much higher among communities of color. And when you're looking at Latinos when you're talking about Spanish-speaking only communities then it's even higher. And so why wouldn't we take advantage of the fact that even if you wanted to just be brass tacks database that's a ton of people. And it's the same thing when you look at the people who are energized by the Green New Deal there's millions of people who would have never stepped into the space had that not come on the scene. So that energy to me is what we need much more of and we need to continue to generate that and have that these new and innovative ideas. They might seem scary to some but it's just because change is, you know, makes us a little nervous. And you know what, that's a good thing that means we're growing.

Greg Dalton: Dr. Bullard a lot of the quote mainstream environmental efforts have been funded by people who basically want to keep the economic and class structure in place and they're worried that their house in the woods might burn down or their house on the ocean might get flooded. And they want to keep things the same and kind of swap out fossils for clean but they don't want to tackle some of these deeper racial and structural issues is that fair?

Robert Bullard: Yes. The long and short of it is that I think the time has passed for tinkering around the edges. The fact that we are facing a threat in terms of climate change and global warming that it will call for bold action and bold decisions that will need to be made across the board. And economic political in terms of our transportation systems and in terms of our energy systems in terms of our housing, in terms of land use planning and in terms of all those things coming together. So it's not just we talk about solution you just can't have a few policymakers sitting in a room who've all been trained in one little area who went to the same school who may not understand anything that's going on the ground in a community. They've flown over it 30,000 feet and at 30,000 feet everything look small. Looks great. You can't see the granular kind of thing.

So we need to really think through this whole idea of keeping things as they are. Right now in Houston, Texas, fourth-largest city in the country, only major city that doesn't have zoning were fighting like hell to make sure that the recovery does not post-Harvey recovery does not reproduce the pre-Harvey inequality. We don't want to rebuild on inequality and make it like it was because like a was it's unequal. It took a biblical flood to get environmental groups mostly white groups in Houston to come together with groups of the environmental justice groups of faith-based groups, groups working on transportation and food security, etc. to come together.

And we say it should not take a disaster for us to come together.

But 2018 election was a blue wave in Houston and the old guard was swept out, new guards came in and the idea of building equity into way funding building equity into the way that decisions are being made, having the right people who have been exposed to inequality for decades in charge they can see that it makes a whole lot of sense to build out housing because housing affordability is a big issue, transportation a big issue, access to jobs on the issue around flooding, around issues around land-use plan and etc., all these things have to be dealt with and not just one issue of flood mitigation. So if they go with the old guard they just want to do flood mitigation and money follows money, money follows power, money follows like that's how it's done before. That's the formula that's shown and it comes out in study after study. With the cost-benefit analysis you get money following where the most damage the biggest homes cost-benefit analysis will say, well you put the money over the $800,000 homes are why should you invest in 80,000 dollar houses when it cost 40,000 to do whatever. They'll put the money over where the big homes are and the big homes and neighborhoods with the big homes will see their property values increase whereas the communities of color will lose. They will lose out, study after study.

And so when we say let's not keep that policy in place that will push that will marginalize communities further down the economic ladder and at the same time move more affluent at another level which they increase their home values and their quality of life their disaster preparedness and their resilience, etc., where just you make poor communities even more marginalized.

Now that's what we're fighting in Houston, we saw that, you know, play out in New Orleans after Katrina. We're seeing it play out in disaster after disaster. And we said, that should not be. When you don't protect the least in your society you place everybody at risk. And so our thing is justice will say, let's do fairness, equity and justice to make sure that we do not somehow say just because you live in a low-income neighborhood that you don't deserve to have a park, a grocery store and flood mitigation and flood protection, you don't deserve access to transportation.

We say that's the equity part that's the justice part. Let's deal with the whole picture and not just somehow just because your neighborhood flooded for the first time, now you just want to deal with one issue. The justice framing and the equity lands will say we need to address those legacy issues that somehow got swept under the rug or got somehow wiped off of the slate of policy. And that's what we're fighting for right now. And for someone who has tenure, I'm not shy, I'm not timid. And at my age I don't care what people say.

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Greg Dalton: You're listening to a conversation about the fight for environmental equity. This is Climate One. Coming up -- are we solving our social justice problems, or just passing them on?

Audience Member: Because often when you fight a refinery or a dump out of your community it's moved to another community or exported to a different country where there's less regulation and it's less expensive to dispose of.

Greg Dalton: That's up next, when Climate One continues.

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Greg Dalton: This is Climate One. I'm Greg Dalton. We're talking about environmental and social justice, with Dr. Robert Bullard of Texas Southern University, and Adrianna Quintero of the Energy Foundation. Dr. Bullard is this year's recipient of the Stephen Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Communication, presented by Climate One.

Let's go to questions from our live audience.

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Female Participant: Hi. My name is Summer-Solstice Thomas. I'm an environmental studies major at Williams College. How do we, when looking at like chemical and municipal waste disposal and even like chemical production, how do we pursue justice? Because often when you fight a refinery or a dump out of your community it's moved to another community or exported to a different country where there's less regulation and it's less expensive to dispose of. So how do we find like true justice and not just equity like you're talking about just spreading the pollutants for everyone.

Robert Bullard: Well, it's not easy and it's not complex. You know, the idea if a community or a city produces the waste, it should figure out how to deal with it and not export it. In Houston since that lawsuit was filed in 1979, Bean versus Southwestern Waste Management Corporation. Not a single sanitary landfill has been located in Houston since that lawsuit. And what that lawsuit did it forced a city that doesn't have zoning, it forced white people to say, we've run out of black communities to put landfill because we're gonna have bunch of lawsuits. We must figure out a way to deal with our waste because we know landfills are not compatible with white communities.

And so they went to a very aggressive waste minimization composting program. And so the idea of reducing the amount of waste and extending the life of landfills and coming up with alternatives, etc. and recycling. This is the city that prided itself as unrestrained capitalism, meaning that laissez-faire you could do anything you want, now has forced itself to come with ordinances and regulations that was forced upon them because of lawsuits. I don't think we need to be exporting waste and cross boundary waste trading.

And again when we work on landfills and waste management issues we don't say, oh send it over there. We work with communities, the over there communities, and make them aware of what the issues are. And so we've been able to slow down a lot of the -- sending it across the border and exporting the problem somewhere else here in the U.S. as well as abroad. And the fact that, you know, with the spat with China in terms of the trade spat with China, you know, a lot of the "recyclables and waste" now is piling up here because China is saying no. That means it's forcing us to do something.

Greg Dalton: Next question. Welcome.

Male Participant: Hi my name is Carter Brooks. You mentioned your whom thing a lot of well-meaning groups, communities, etc. of white people wanted to be more diverse are often trying to just bring people to them rather than learning to go out to those communities and find out what they need. So I'd like either of the guests to speak up about what more or how we can promote a different way of thinking. So that's the first thing we start thinking of about how we're gonna go to those communities to find out what they need rather than pretend we need them in any way. Any way you want to speak to that issue.

Greg Dalton: Adrianna Quintero, lot of times it's those predominantly white organizations going to communities of color saying, we know what your problem is and here's how you should solve it.

Adrianna Quintero: Yeah. I mean that's exactly what we're trying to change. And what I see happening now, which I think is why the tide is really starting to turn is we're starting with race. We're having that conversation about race. If we don't start there it becomes really easy to make a lot of assumptions and just kind of pat ourselves on the back. But when you start with race you have to face your bias you have to face those assumptions and you have to realize that especially if you're a white organization, predominantly white, that you don't have the answers, that you can't even begin to have the answers. So it really changes your stance from one that is paternalistic and all-knowing to a learning stance. And that's really hard for people and it is absolutely essential. If you don't have that as your first step, I don't know how you really get to that openness. We have to develop a growth mindset around this and we have not had that. So it's essential that we face our bias and talk about it and name racism and classism and privilege and all of these difficult conversations if we're really going to have a meaningful conversation and make change.

Greg Dalton: Let's go to our next question. Welcome.

Male Participant: Sure. Hi, my name is Kay. It's pretty much the same question just more specific. Climate One's audience is really white and same with the Commonwealth Club. How does this organization bring more diversity here?

Greg Dalton: Great question. You know it's certainly an establishment organization having programs like this. These all sorts of issues of getting people I think sometimes the Commonwealth Club name feels like, that's downtown will I be comfortable there? Is that like all white men with leather wingtip chair? People have a certain perception, right, of that name. And it used to be that 75 years ago but now, you know, it's something I think we struggle with just as much as other organizations. Having programs like this and certainly spreading the word, if you'd like to talk afterwards and you have some suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Because we kind of reflect the -- we do a lot to have gender balance we're pretty proud of the gender balance we have in our program. It's about 55/45, it's less balanced racially and ethnically. So thanks for that question. Welcome.

Male Participant: Good evening everyone. My name is Alexis Cureton and I'm a clean energy and equity advocate here in San Francisco. And the question that I have for you is in the face of utility power shut offs and the impending earthquake that everybody keeps talking about again I'm from Indiana so all of this is new to me. How do you suggest communities of color really frame the discussion around resiliency when understanding like you were saying we are not really at the head of these organizations a lot of us come in as assistants or program managers and so on and so forth. A lot of this is new to us. So how can we really help frame the discussion and not only frame it but really lead these movements within these institutions.

Robert Bullard: Well, you know, I'll give my biased opinion. I think the equity lens has to be applied across the board where we talk about the resilience concept but also in terms of who's at the table who's leading these issues. The equity starts at home and that has to be something that's gonna drive this whole process. Making sure that you have a diverse pool of folks who are making decisions around how we're gonna drive this resilience train. And it can't be just the same people all the time. Moving from one issue to the next issue where we talk about sustainability and then we talk about resilience. And then we're talking about, you know, the climate over here and here we're talking about, you know, this issue over here. It has to come together.

And that cross-fertilization that intersectionality for me will be key. And even though the resilience might be new to you on one area there are other areas where you have lots of expertise and you can bring that expertise into that room that's talking about resilience. Because you can't have a resilient city if that city somehow keeps building on the inequality and somehow economic inequality racial inequality the spatial inequality. Those things have to be brought into the mix and sociologists are very good at that.

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Greg Dalton: You've been listening to Climate One. We've been talking about climate change and environmental justice, with Dr. Robert Bullard, Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University, and Adrianna Quintero, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Energy Foundation.

Greg Dalton: To hear more Climate One conversations, subscribe to our podcast at climateone.org. Please help us get people talking more about climate by giving us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts.

Greg Dalton: Kelli Pennington directs our audience engagement. Tyler Reed is our producer. Sara-Katherine Coxon is the strategy and content manager. The audio engineers are Mark Kirchner, Justin Norton, and Arnav Gupta. Anny Celsi edited the program. Dr. Gloria Duffy is CEO of The Commonwealth Club of California, where our program originates. I'm Greg Dalton.

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Dr. Robert Bullard: The Father of Environmental Justice

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Climate One honors Robert Bullard with the ninth annual Stephen Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communications. Often described as the father of environmental justice, Bullard has written several seminal books on the subject and is known for his work highlighting pollution on minority communities and speaking up against environmental racism in the 1970-1980s.